This invention relates generally to the field of apparatus for peeling fruit. More particularly, it relates to apparatus for removing stems and pieces of fruit skin remaining after an initial peeling step.
Conventional equipment for peeling fruit, such as tomatoes, includes apparatus for scalding the fruit and then either application of caustic chemicals to remove the skin therefrom, or use of mechanical apparatus for slitting the skin and expelling the meat of the fruit therefrom while most of the skin remains gripped for disposal, as described in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 253,373, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,572. While this mechanical type of removal of skin from the fruit is highly effective and advantageous, it frequently happens that small portions of the fruit skin, as well as pieces of the fruit stalk, may remain attached to the fruit after this initial peeling step.
To remove any remaining pieces of the fruit skin, or fruit stalks, several well known types of equipment, such as that sold by the assignee of this application, include additional apparatus for completing removal of any such remaining undesirable portions from the fruit. This additional equipment conventionally has been in the form of a conveyor whose bed comprises an endless series of parallel adjacent rollers supported at their axial extremities by endless chains that carry these rollers around the endless path. The generally upward facing portion of this path conventionally is relatively flat to receive the fruit and carry it along such a relatively flat path to the end thereof, whereupon it is discharged down a chute. This generally flat path is conventionally inclined slightly upwardly from the point of entry of the fruit to the point of discharge.
Adjacent pairs of the rollers comprising this endless conveyor are driven for rotation in mutually opposing directions such that the upper surfaces of each pair of these rollers, while moving along the generally flat upward facing portion of the path, rotate toward one another. This rotation, combined with contact between the adjacent rollers of each respective pair, caused those rollers to function as pinch rollers such that any pieces of fruit skin or stalks of fruit caught between them will be pulled downwardly away from the fruit and removed therefrom.
To increase the friction between the fruit and the pair of peeling rollers upon which the fruit may rest, it is conventional for one of each mutually adjacent pair of rollers to be provided with small ridges projecting radially outwardly and extending axially along the rollers. However, the small ridges provided on conventional rollers hve required constant cleaning by jets of water to remove accumulations of fruit pulp that form on the roller surfaces. It has been necessary to remove such accumulation to maintain the necessary frictional engagement between the rollers and the first to obtain gripping and removal of the fruit skin.
The necessity for constant water cleaning of the rollers is highly disadvantageous for several reasons. Absent the use of the cleaning water, any tomato pulp that is removed from the fruits themselves can be recovered and processed into additional products, such as tomato paste. Likewise, additional products could be produced from the pieces of tomato skin and any tomato juice that may be lost by the fruit in this peeling process. If additional cleaning water is used it dilutes such juices and must be evaporated for these by-products to be recovered and used. Additionally, and more significantly, in some geographical areas of chronic water shortage, the cost of substantial quantities of cleaning water may be significant. In many such areas restrictions are being imposed upon the permissible levels of contamination of any water discharged from processing plants. These restrictions thus require expensive purifications of cleaning water before it can be discharged. For all of these reasons the continuous water cleaning required of conventional peeling rollers has become highly disadvantageous to the processing of fruit such as tomatos.